One problem I had with the W106s - I'd guess that 8 days out of 10 I rode on totally bare pavement. The tires don't do well on bare pavement, I lost a lot of studs (probably 20 gone by the time I retired them) and I actually had one stud get pressed INTO the tire and cause a flat. This year I am getting a new winter commuter and I may wind up using my old beater on sunny days with dry pavement.

sorry the winters didn't work for you. I really like them for icy, but not deep snow, commuting. I think there was a batch produced that lost studs a few years ago, but that's been resolved. I have some on their 3rd or 4th winter without a single stud lost. I use the Schwalbe Ice Spikers in tougher conditions (they are like the 240s) but they are slow and heavy too.

I sill have all 320 in mine .. 20 years of occasional use.

Mount and Ground W 26"/1.9"wide (Wide, Snow Cat, Rims )

fortunately there is a stud replacement tool sold , Now ..and replacement studs .

the lack of studs down the center of the tire is what makes them cope with ice free pavement .

they are still skate like when walking the bike on indoor .. floors ..

narrow, wide is too much of a drag

both Schwalbe and Nokian have 29" studded tires. The Schwalbe are tubeless ready, and shockingly expensive. My LBS has a pair for half off, I think they may still be more than my Nokians

Ever try adding air to therm? I found that if I run them around 50+ the studs barely touch the pavement. When it's slippery I drop a few pounds out of them

I will try that. I generally run at about 40 PSI.

+1 A very good point.

I've become very attuned to winter tire pressures and ride characteristics as I've found it makes a big difference. I vary the pressure for every change in conditions and sometimes daily. I'm looking for the best combination of safety and efficiency in winter. I just sort of know it by now. Weather and road conditions change frequently and IMHO to get the best performance out of your studded tires the psi needs to be tweaked correspondingly.
As an aside, this is especially true when riding fat bikes in any conditions as correct tire pressures are the biggest factor in how the bike handles and performs, and I do commute on mine in the winter. Can't wait in fact!

It's hard to ignore advice based on riding my bike in my city!

My experience is limited to 26", but the Nokian Hakkepeliita 294 tires that I've had were amazing on ice and shallow snow. Any snow deeper than 3"-4" is a pain, though, especially if it's kind of slushy. I imagine their 700c tires are pretty good, too.

A pair of Nokian W106s here too. They've been manufacturing studded bike tyres since 1960s or so. They know what they're doing.

--J

Schwalbe Marathon Winter for paved roads that get plowed (cleaned) regularly, Nokians for deeper snow, off road etc.

I'm verry happy with Schwalbes for city-suburb 11 km one way commuting. Good on packed snow, good in shallow snow, good on clean pavement, average in deeper snow, useless in snow over 20 cm.

What he said. I've tried both and the fact that I find myself in deep, wet snow occasionally made me go back to Nokians, even though they're slow and heavy. Slow and heavy beats "fell 6 times on the way to work today."

Yeah, what he said. I only use Nokians. If I didn't roll with Nokians, If I didn't roll with Nokians, I would use Schwalbes.

Actually, I only buy two brands of tires. Schwalbe Marathon Plus, and Nokian Mount & Ground.

Had a fall on Innovas, have switched to the Continental Nordic Spike 700-42 (cyclocross bicycle). The nordic spike puts the studs out on knobbies, which I hope puts more weight down the studs into the ground. It's comforting that they make the same rolling noises of a winterized car tire on dry pavement...

And this winter, they've totally been worth it. It's not been a good winter for biking in Chicago. Unless you're nuts. Last couple years, I've seen commuters on all but the coldest days. I've seen two this year.

What fossised turd said above. Get yourself a good set of Finnish studded tires. There's a niche market. Prepare your credit card. Chase it down.

You should have trademarked that brilliant insult because I'm now going to use it!

Coprolite, that is the paleontologist's term, in Science !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprolite

no idea what fossised , is ..

Interesting, how are the W240s working out for you? How are they on snow/ice-free roads? I have the W106 and they have been great. Just this year with a lot of ice on the road, I sometimes wish I had something more aggressive. The W106 are not all ideal for uneven ice or the road (ice bumps and hills) , because I tend to slip sideways.

I was having the exact same issue with ruts and W106's, see this thread http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ng-frozen-ruts. Based on the discussion there I swapped out a Schwalbe Marathon Winter in the front (still using 106 in rear) and it's a huge improvement.

As everyone has said, carbide studs are a requirement as the tire will wear out before the studs (you don't suddenly fall over when the studs wear out all of a sudden).

I use Schwalbe Marathon winters. One year, I thought I'd buy the Nokian 29(something's) - their 26" heavily studded, heavily knobby tire. To be fair, my Marathon Winters were 700c while the Nokian was only 26" (I put it on my mountain bike).

I was kind of shocked to find that in riding in a snowfall, there was no difference between the 2 tires in their ability to handle deep snow. Anything the Schwalbe could get through the Nokian could get through, anything the Schwalbe got stuck in the Nokian got stuck in as well. There was this one stretch of uncleared sidewalk - only made it halfway through with the Nokian. Walked back to the beginning, got the bike up to speed, plowed through the whole thing as long as I was going fast. Figured no way would the Schwalbe make it through. Came back with the Schwalbe - it handled it exactly the same, couldn't make it through going slow but plowed through it going fast.

My side-by-side never dealt with icy ruts, but with snow - they're basically the same. Except the fatter Nokian was way more work to pedal.

Only tire I've found that handles snow **significantly** better than the Schwalbe Marathon winter is an actual fatbike tire.

One of the great things about the Schwalbe Marathon winter, to, is that you can change the stud contact by changing the tire pressure. When it's nasty out I ride with low pressure, and all 4 rows of studs come into contact with the ground. When it's relatively nice out - like in the fall or spring where there's only occassional ice patches (or when the MUP is well cleared) - I use a high pressure, which causes only the 2 middle rows of studs to come into contact with the ground, and the bike rolls faster.

You wouldn't remember what Nokian tires those were, because I understand there are big differences between A10 and the WXC300.

Same. I use 26x1.75" Schwalbe Marathon Winters and they work fantastic on ice, shallow snow, and tarmac with not a lot of rolling resistance. I was caught the other day riding home in pretty deep snow and traction in those conditions were pretty weak. However, after I lowered the air pressure from 70 to 35 psi I had no problems.

They're the Nokian Extreme 294's.